Kobe came home to play the Sixers needing 24 points to move into 5th on the All Time scoring list and pass Shaq. With 5 minutes left in the 2nd quater, Kobe hits his 8th shot which was good for his 24th point of the game. He's currently 8-12, 4-5 from 3, in 16 minutes for 24 points. Wow. And he knew excatly when he broke the record cuz the Sixers immediatly called a time out and Fisher ran over to Kobe and gave him a huge hug.

Yeah a lot of them shots shouldn't have even beek taken and he nailed them. Did you see the shot he hit on Turner where Turner was playing great D he anticipated Kobe's move, had a hand in his face as Kobe shot a leaning away fader and the ball hit the rim and spun around like 20 times before going into the rim, I can't remenber a ball ever rolling around the rim that many times before dropping.

I was mad cuz I had to run out at halftime and winded up missing the whole 2nd half. I was shocked Kobe only scored 4 more points the rest of the game after I posted this. He only finished the game with 28. Cuz Kobe was hitting everything in that first half making it look easy.

Howard has the best years of his career ahead of him and he’s set to take over as the face of the Lakers within the next two seasons. While Nash is near the end of his career like Payton was, he’s coming in at a time where he can fit in seamlessly. Payton was forced into trying to run Phil Jackson’s triangle offense and struggled mightily.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has become enthralled with salary cap space since the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was implemented. Having cap room didn’t exactly pay off for him this summer as he missed out on his top target Deron Williams, who stayed with the Brooklyn Nets instead. So, he’s going to potentially try his luck again next offseason and hope that in the meantime a team full of expiring contracts can bind together and win at the rate he’s grown accustomed to.

As the Cleveland Cavaliers head into year three of their rebuilding program, there is reason for hope despite a 40-108 record in the post-LeBron James era. General manager Chris Grant has added three top-five draft picks to his roster and turned the Los Angeles Lakers 2012 twenty-fourth pick into the highly-rated North Carolina senior Tyler Zeller.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have young talent at every position, but they’re likely several years away from competing in the Eastern Conference. They’ll enter this season as one of the youngest teams in the league and it’s hard to imagine them qualifying for the postseason, especially considering several non-playoff teams in the East such as the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards added key veterans over the summer in an effort to bolster their rosters for a playoff push.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban later joked that for the first time in years he didn’t cringe when he watched his team’s starting center shooting jumpers on the practice court. Kaman’s ability to do a number of things with the basketball will certainly make the Mavs harder to defend.

Fortunately for Green’s shooting percentage, this Celtics team isn’t reliant on players forcing things on offense. Practically every player on this team outside of Rajon Rondo and Darko Milicic plays two or more positions. That means sometimes the Celtics will have a size advantage, sometimes they’ll have a speed advantage, but they always have to be cognizant of who they’re matched up with.

“For me to be a part of this team, this organization, this history and the way that they’re going into the future, it’s unexplainable… I couldn’t ask better than being here.”

The Pacers couldn’t ask for better either. When all is said and done, $3.5 million a year for a young man this decent and this talented could prove to be one of the better values of the 2012 crop of free agents.

With the NBA removing the center position from the All-Star ballot, many players who used to be center eligible will likely see a significant drop in the number of fan votes. Of course, many of these same players’ games more closely resemble that of a traditional power forward than that of a center. Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers may be the classic example of a power forward playing center in the NBA over the past few seasons, but apparently, that is about to change.

“These guys that are rookies, that are young like Tristan (Thompson) and Dion, you’ve got to give them time,” Scott said. “I heard after the scrimmage game, the Wine and Gold game, that everyone was so excited about how good Dion was. Then after the first preseason game, they weren’t so sure. He’s going to have his ups and downs. He’s a rookie, a 20-year-old rookie. He’s going to have his ups and downs. That’s the NBA. There have been very few rookies who have come into this league and just set it on fire from the start to the finish. People just need to relax and give the man some time. Just be patient, he’s going to be alright.”

“I told the players that I’m going to use the entire month to try and focus and find the right fit for this team,” Smart said. “I used Tyreke in training camp at the one, two and three. So I’m going to look and focus on what group of players can fit together and not over-step each other. But Tyreke was by far our best defensive player on our team during training camp. So I’m looking forward to him being able to fill multiple roles for our team.”

The early portion of the Mavericks schedule is fairly balanced with road games and home games. Despite how tough the Western Conference is and how important Nowitzki is to the Mavericks, 60 games should be enough for them to make up any ground they lose in the playoff race during his absence.

On the court, Curry played in just 10 games for the Knicks between 2008 and 2011 before catching on with the Miami HEAT this past season. Curry played in the final 14 regular season contests (including one start) for the eventual champion HEAT, but was left off of the playoff roster.